Any suggestions as to where to practice leading in southern New England? I live in the Boston Area and am comfortable leading at 5.5/5.6. I've been to Crow Hill, and will go again, but am interested in other crags within an hour or two of Boston. Where do you suggest?

Craig

Craig

Ragged and Pinical in CT are within 2 hours of you and both a great for leading. Both have climbs that you would want to learn on. My first lead was on the practice face at Crow hill and my second was at pinical and third was at Ragged. If you want dirrections let me know.

Go to red rock in Gloucester (in the boston rocks book - exit 14 on 128 , rt. 133 go left under the interstate and park. Follow the trail.) it has an excellent 5.5 climb, Zipper, that is awesome. It takes tons of gear and is a great easy lead. Check it out.

What are Ragged and Pinnical like? How tall, what grade, what type of rock, how steep? Very interested. Oh yeah . . . and where are they? Thanks!

Craig

Ragged is 100' high and TONS of climbs of all levels from 5.3-5.12. Pinical is 40-50 feet high with some face climbing with some great 5.5-5.7 crack climbs that are easly protected. they are both about 15 min south of hartford. i have the direction written down at home and i could bring them in tomorow or you could go to the Ragged mountian foundation web site (search yahoo CT for Ragged mountian) and you can find directions there. ragged is hard to get to alone the first time. Pinical is easy. that same site you can get a CT guide book for $6. they are both worth checking out. both are made of trapp rock. very differant climbing then crow hill. i would sugest pinical for the first trip.

How easily protected are the easy (5.6) routes at Ragged and Pinnacle? Are the guidbooks good about letting you know the quality of the protection?

Thanks,
Rourke

Is a route named Zipper sort of a bad omen???

Funny seeing you here, Rourke? I thought you were at work. It looks like Pinnacle and Ragged are both about 2 hrs from Boston - maybe a little far for Saturday. But, thanks CTClimber. I'll keep them in mind and try to get there soon. They sound great.

Craig

Zipper is a great route, especially the crux where the flake turns, but it's a pain to protect. When you lead it, do you lay it back or flip-flop and jam uf the left side?

Craig

The guide book does not tell you anything about pro, one of its down falls. at Ragged this can be a big problem as your can not see the top half of the climb and i have gotten into trouble on more then one occation. at pinnical all of the crack climbs are a G protection. very easy, great to learn on. also they are not that tall so you can see the pro all the way up. both are worth the drive for you.